I cut and pasted this from the Chicago Tribune website -
Marines in uniform barred from high school graduation
Items compiled by Tribune news services
June 8, 2001
ELKHART, INDIANA -- Two Marines turned away from their high school graduation ceremony because they arrived wearing military uniforms say they're angry at school officials.
Elkhart Memorial High School officials said Pfc. David Hobbs and Pvt. Josh Beam violated responsibility agreements for graduation, which both had signed, that spells out what students are to wear.
The agreement states that males must wear socks, a shirt with collar, tie and slacks, said school Superintendent Fred Bechtold.
"We didn't mean any disrespect to the uniform. [The military] is an honorable undertaking. But we have a uniform too for about an hour and a half" at graduation, Bechtold said.
Hobbs and Beam recently finished three months of basic training in San Diego and returned to Elkhart to graduate with their peers.
Hobbs said when he and Beam entered the Joyce Center at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend for the graduation ceremony Tuesday night, neither expected a problem.
"I thought I was wearing what was in the dress code. They were going for a respectable look under the gown," Hobbs said.
But Hobbs said he was pulled aside by school officials and given a choice on his attire.
"They said I either had to take my [jacket] off and put on a shirt and tie or put a tie on my military uniform."